U.S. Bombings In Syria Kill 77 Civilians, Including Children

By Nika Knight/Common Dreams

Dozens of civilians, including children, were killed on Monday and Tuesday by U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.

The strikes appeared to have been a mistake, with the civilians taken for Islamic State militants, the U.K.-based human rights group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group told the AFP news agency.

Fifty-six civilians were killed on Tuesday by coalition forces, and 21 civilians were killed by the coalition on Monday. The 77 civilian deaths included at least 11 children.

"Air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition killed at least 21 civilians in and around a stronghold of the Islamic State group in northern Syria on Monday, a monitor said.

"At least 15 civilians were killed in raids in a northern district of Manbij while six others were killed in a village near the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights."

The UN Commission on Human Rights warned Friday that 70,000 civilians were likely trapped in Manbij, where the international body believes the situation is "deteriorating dramatically as fighting continues between ISIL and the Syrian Democratic Forces which is being supported by airstrikes."

Before the airstrike in Tokhar on Tuesday, Airwars, a website tracking U.S.-led coalition killings of civilians in Syria, said this is the "worst ever week" for deaths caused by the coalition in the two years since the conflict started.

The U.S. has in recent months been intensifying its airstrikes in Syria, as journalist and radio host Sonali Kolhatkar wrote in May.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an advocacy group based in the U.S. and the U.K, reported on social media that by Tuesday evening local time the civilian death toll from the day's strikes had reportedly climbed to 65, although the rights group has yet to verify that number:

Middle East Eyereports that the coalition did not respond to requests for comment on the recent civilian deaths. The news organization added:

"Raed Saleh, the leader of the Syrian Civil Defence Force which conducts humanitarian rescue missions in the rebel-held areas, told Middle East Eye in June that he had confronted the U.S.-led coalition about civilian deaths in September 2014.

"'Mistakes are likely to happen,' Saleh said he was told at the time."

Airwars estimates that the total number of civilians killed in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition is 1,422, at minimum, to date.

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Previously in Syria:
* The [Tuesday] Papers: You have a better chance of winning the Illinois Lottery - and getting paid - than a terrorist has of slipping into the United States posing as a refugee.